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01.20.23

Schumer Lead The Charge To
Protect & Keep Rochester GM Plant Open When It Was On The Verge Of Closure
After 2008 Auto Industry Crash And Fought Non-Stop Personally Calling On GM To
Bring New Work To UAW Workers Of The Finger Lakes  

Now Electric Battery Components
Built At GM Rochester Plant Will Help Power Future EV Production And Lead GM’s
Transformation To All-Electric Cars

Schumer: New GM Investment
Will Put Rochester Plant in ‘Driver’s Seat’, To Power America’s Electric
Vehicle Future 

After fighting to save the Rochester plant
from closure years ago, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer today
announced that following his push, General Motors will invest $68 million at
their Rochester manufacturing plant for the production of electric vehicle
battery components that will position the plant at the forefront of the rapidly
growing electric vehicles market as well as for production of components for
GM’s next-generation Gen6 V8 light duty truck engine. The represents the
culmination of years of efforts by Schumer to bring new work to the Rochester
GM facility, personally lobbying GM, and creating new federal incentives to
spur electric vehicle production in America. Schumer said Rochester’s
production facility will now be at the heart of GM’s transformation to
all-electric and that this work will help sustain their nearly 750 workers for
years to come.

 

“$68 million in new investment is about to
supercharge Rochester’s GM facility, sparking the next generation of electric
vehicle battery production right here in the Finger Lakes, and helping bring
this historic manufacturing plant back to the future. This factory invented
fuel injection and now Rochester workers will help power the future of electric
cars in America,” said Senator Schumer. “I lead the charge to save the
Rochester plant when it was on the verge of closure after the 2008 auto
industry crash, and this investment will ensure its long term prosperity for
years to come. This new EV battery component line will put this factory in the ‘driver’s
seat’ to lead GM’s transformation to an all-electric future.”

 

Schumer added, “As majority leader, I am proud to have
led the historic investments in EV production to help bring this industry back
from overseas and I applaud GM for awarding this new work to Rochester. 
Rochester’s powerhouse union workforce is second to none and I can think of no
better team to lead the charge to fuel America’s future and the fight against
climate change.”  

 

Dan Maloney President UAW local 1097 said, “The union represented workers at GM
Rochester are grateful for the tenacious advocacy Senator Chuck Schumer brings
to help secure a long-term future for our manufacturing facility. With his
unyielding support for workers, good paying jobs, and New York businesses, we
will maintain and grow our Upstate economy.   With Senator Schumer leading
our political delegation, and keeping the focus on expanding job opportunities,
I know our members and our community will prosper. “

The $68 million
new investment in the Rochester facility will help put the plant at the center
of GM’s transformation to all-electric while building critical components to
support GM’s industry-leading truck business. Schumer explained that $56
million will help prepare the facility to build battery pack cooling lines for
EV production and $12 million will be invested to prepare the facility to build
intake manifolds and fuel rails for GM’s next-generation Gen6 V8
engine. Schumer said this new work to build new parts for both internal
combustion and electric vehicles firmly positions Rochester at the heart of
GM’s cutting-edge transformation by both helping lead GM’s transition to an
all-electric future, while having the flexibility to support production of GM’s
Gen6 V8 light duty truck engine manufacturing.  The new EV Battery Cooling
Line components made in Rochester will be used for the Cadillac Lyriq, GMC
Hummer EV and other upcoming EV vehicle releases.

GM’s Rochester
facility currently employs nearly 750 workers, including 605 UAW Local 1097
Members.  GM has invested $174 million in Rochester since 2011, and nearly
$770 million across their Western New York manufacturing plants in the same
time period.

Today’s announcement follows more than a
decade of work by Schumer to keep the Rochester auto facility open and
successful.  In 2009, following his support for the U.S. Auto Industry
Rescue package,  Schumer led the charge to keep the Rochester plant
open when it’s then-owner,
Delphi, closed dozens of other plants as a result of its bankruptcy.  Dozens of other Delphi plants closed, but thanks to
Schumer’s intervention Rochester was one of only a few plants that stayed in
business.  Schumer ultimately succeeded in his push with the Obama
Administration and GM  to have GM reacquire both the Rochester plant and the
Lockport, NY plant from Delphi, thereby keeping these workers and plants in
business and safe from closure.   Over the past several years in
personal letters and calls to GM’s CEO, Schumer has advocated for GM to award new product lines to the Rochester facility and worked with
Rep. Joe Morelle to make the case to GM to add new production in Rochester.

“Today’s
announcement is so much more than just an investment in GM’s Rochester
facility—it’s an investment in the future of our workforce, our economy, and
our families,” said Congressman Joe Morelle. “I am grateful to
the many government and community partners whose longstanding advocacy and
commitment has brought us to this exciting moment. I want to thank GM for
recognizing the enormous potential of the Rochester community, and I look
forward to our continued work together with many years of growth and success to
come.”

Schumer stressed he wants this to only be
the beginning of new work building America’s electric vehicle future at
UAW-staffed plants in the Finger Lakes and Western New York. Schumer noted that
the growing need for electric vehicles should drive new investment
at the neighboring GM facilities in Lockport and Tonawanda, as well as the Ford
Stamping Plant in Blasdell. The senator just helped deliver a $154 million
investment at the GM Lockport manufacturing facility last year for the production of electric motor
components. Schumer stated that all four facilities are critical to Upstate New
York’s economy and that he would do everything in his power to ensure their
continued prosperity and connection to new opportunities in the fast-growing
electric vehicle market.

 

Senator
Schumer has long been leading the charge
at the federal level to make electric vehicles affordable, and expand electric
vehicle infrastructure and manufacturing in the U.S. In October 2019, Schumer unveiled his Clean Cars For America
Climate Proposal to help accelerate the transition to
net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century by making clean cars and charging
infrastructure accessible and affordable to all Americans, all while investing
in the domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles and batteries to ensure the
U.S. leads the world in this industry. Schumer was able to realize many of
these goals in groundbreaking Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment
in fighting climate change ever. The Inflation Reduction Act expands consumer
tax credits for clean vehicle purchases by providing a new tax credit of $4,000
for the sale of used clean cars, a new tax credit
of $7,500 for commercial clean vehicles, and expanded tax credits of up
to $7,500 for purchasers of certain new clean vehicles that meet domestic
content and critical mineral content requirements that scale over time, as well
as specifications on the cost of the vehicle and its final assembly. The law also includes incentives for EV charger
deployments and funding to retrofit existing manufacturing facilities to make
clean vehicles. These tax credits are expected to create huge new market
demand and are what have largely spurred companies like GM to double down on
their production of clean electric vehicles making investments like today’s
possible.

Additionally,
in the bipartisan Infrastructure
Investment & Jobs Act, that Schumer
led to passage, he successfully secured $7.5 billion to build out a national
network of EV chargers, including $175 million for New York, that will put
America on the path to a convenient and equitable network of 500,000 chargers
across the country. This investment by the federal government is key to accelerating
the adoption of electric vehicles; making electric vehicles and the
infrastructure they rely on more accessible to all Americans.

The
GM Rochester Facility on Lexington Avenue opened in 1939 has produced the
highest quality fuel systems and emission control devices for General Motors
for over 80 years.   Schumer praised GM for its foresight in locating
this new production in Rochester and said GM’s employees at the Rochester plant
are hard-working, productive and second to none.  Rochester’s GM Lexington
Avenue Facility invented mechanical fuel injection for the automotive in the
1950’s, quadrajet carburation in the 1960’s, refined hydrogen fuel cell
technology in the 1990’s and made the world’s best direct injection systems for
GM.  

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